When God was visiting the Moravians in the early days, they organized at Hernhut two praying bands, one of men and the other of women, each with twenty-four members. These bands set apart one man and one woman to pray every hour of the day, so that the men in their place and the women in theirs were praying continuously during the twenty-four hours.

This double prayer, unbroken through everyday was maintained for a hundred years. During this period there emerged the Moravian Mission Movement in which the missionary church grew three times as large as the home church. The Moravians were used to give new light on essential Bible truths to John and Charles Wesley, thus preparing them for the revival that swept across England and reached America.

Warren Wiersbe said, "One of the most moving experiences of my life came when I stepped from John Wesley's bedroom in his London home into the little adjacent prayer room. Outside the house was the traffic noise of City Road, but inside that prayer chamber was the holy hush of God.

It's only furnishings were a walnut table which held a Greek New Testament and a candlestick, a small stool ad a chair. When he was in London, Wesley entered the room early each morning to read God's Word and pray.

The guide in Wesley's home told me, "This little room was the powerhouse of Methodism."

Today is a great holiday in the Church, Pentecost, a special day to think about God's power unleashed by prayerful devotion and resulting in practical demonstration. Tomorrow is also the day we remember that God transformed the life of John Wesley in a chapel on Aldersgate Street.

I. Prayerful Devotion

I already mentioned the prayerful devotion of the Moravians at Hernhut and Wesley's prayer room at London. On this occasion it is certainly fitting for us to focus our attention back many more years, to the prayerful devotion that followed the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His ascension into heaven.

Jesus' followers who had watched Him rise into the sky from Mount Olivet returned to Jerusalem and assembled in the Upper Room. Peter, John, James, Andrew Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas the son of James, Jesus' brothers, His mother and other women were included in this gathering to pray.

Luke wrote, "These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer." Luke wrote as an educated historian to have a record of the facts, that is, who was present in the upper room. Notice that he included the women. What a diverse group is assembled. The apostles themselves were a diverse group. During his lifetime His brothers had been among His opponents, but after the resurrection they are among His disciples. It is also note worthy to have women included in this group of 120 disciples assembled to pray.

In Jerusalem, Hernhut, London, and other places too, Prayerful Devotion resulted in Practical Demonstration.

II. Practical Demonstration.

As Jesus' disciples were gathered together the Day of Pentecost came. From heaven came a noise like a might, rushing wind which filled the house where they were.

Read v. 3-6. ³They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them. ⁵Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter preached. As he concluded his message people were pierced to the heart and asked Peter and the other Apostles what they should do.

v. 38 ³⁸Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

As a result of Prayerful Devotion men and women responded to the preaching of the Gospel. I call that Practical Demonstration.

In verse 41 we read that about 3000 people repented and committed their lives to Jesus Christ, but this was only the beginning.

We see in the following verses that they lived their faith. They gathered to be taught, they prayed, and they shared of themselves and their belonging with others. There was a sense of awe. God was at work among them. Signs, wonders, and miracles were taking place. The Lord was touching lives and day after day more people were being saved, coming to know Jesus personally. This practical demonstration continued as prayerful devotion continued and professing believers demonstrated Christ's love in their daily lives.

Brothers and sisters in central Iowa, Is such a practical Demonstration of God's power limited to the church of Jerusalem 2000 years ago? NO! Emphatically NO! Not if we are willing to pay the price of Prayerful Devotion. Not if we love God enough to spend time in conversation with Him, love Him enough to live as His word teaches us to live, and if we love those who may not yet know Jesus, love them enough to really pray that they come to Christ. Then our practical demonstration will result in building personal relationships to share Christ's love with those around us.

Two elderly women in the village of Barvas on the Island of Lewis began nightly prayer times when they agreed together to pray for God to send revival to their community. Night after night they interceded before God. After some months, several Godly young men on the other edge of the village began to meet nightly to pray for revival. As the ladies prayed, God revealed to them that Rev. Duncan Campbell would come to Barvas to lead them. When they wrote to him, he regretfully declined the invitation saying his schedule was too crowed. They replied, "You may say you will not come, but God says you are coming."

In December 1949 Duncan Campbell reached the Hebrides to begin a series of meetings. After several nights God's awesome presence fell upon the village bringing deep conviction of sin. From there, the revival spread from village to village until the life of whole communities were transformed.

Drinking houses were closed for lack of business. Buses came from across the Island bring crowds to the meeting... Churches which had had an attendance of only four or five on Sunday mornings were now crowded week after week. Prayer meeting became the center of village life in many communities. The revival came from God, but as far as it can be humanly known, it began as God led two elderly ladies to agree in prayer.

One hundred fifty-three years ago a revival spread across America. It seems to have begun with one man inviting others to pray with him at noon at the Dutch Reformed North Church in New York City. Gradually the crowds increased. As the news of the prayer meeting reached outlying cities, other prayer groups sprang up.

After six months, 10,000 business men were meeting daily at noon in New York City alone. Within about nine months 50,000 people had been converted in New York City. United prayer meetings began to spread across New England down the Ohio Valley to Texas, and across to the West Coast. Much of the United States and Canada was covered by this spirit of intercession fostered in the united prayer meetings.

The Methodists reported 8,000 conversions in their churches in one week. Baptists reported 17,000 conversions over a three week period. For two years there was an average increase of ten thousand weekly in the membership of churches across America. It is conservatively estimated that, of the total U. S. population of about 30 million at that time, at least one million came to Christ in two years time.

Are you willing to commit yourself to Prayerful Devotion so that God in His proper time will bring forth the results of Practical Demonstration? If so, take time to pray for revival within your own life, our church, our community, and beyond. Commit yourself to meeting with others to pray. Open your eyes to see the mission field right around us in our community. That is the reason for our field trip between worship services today.

Jerusalem, Hernhut, London, New York, Hebrides, Indonesia, Korea, - why not Adel, Dallas County, Des Moines, and the State of Iowa and our country in this decade?

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